London Revisited

Tomorrow I leave for London with my good friends, Paul & Iris for a 10 day vacation to see the sights of England and Brussels. We decided to camp out in one place and take day trips instead of moving from place to place, packing and unpacking.

I’m going to date myself, but the last time I was in London was 1970 and I had just graduated from high school. But of course why would I write the Retired Boomer Blog if I was younger! London was the first stopover for a group of students headed for Switzerland to study French for a month. At this point in my life I was definitely not a seasoned traveler. The trip started in New York and I remember being totally awed by the city, the buildings and the traffic. I was from a very small town–maybe we had 20,000 residents. We went to Radio City Music Hall to see “The Out of Towners” movie with Jack Lemmon & Sandy Dennis who go to New York for the first time. All she could say was “Oh My God” to their many misadventures. Anyone else remember that movie?

The three days in London really tainted any desire to return and any time over the years it was suggested we visit, I always voted for France or Italy instead. My main memory of that first trip was starvation. The food was dreadful! Of course a group of students didn’t eat in the finest restaurants but even the fast food was bad. Each day we were given a box lunch and nothing in it was recognizable and certainly not edible.

On the fourth day, we took the Hovercraft over the English Channel to France en route to Paris. We loaded up in buses and stopped at a countryside restaurant for lunch. You would have thought none of us had eaten in days the way we gobbled up every morsel in sight. Well, I guess we hadn’t.

I am excited to have a redo in London. Many of my friends have given it glowing marks and say the food selection has greatly improved over the years. Stay tuned as I will give you an update upon my return.

Tagged as: London, Travel